EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Rybakina reflects on winning Wimbledon last year

The ice queen of Wimbledon: Glamour girl and SW19 champ ELENA RYBAKINA reflects on how cool she was when she won last year’s crown

• Elena Rybakina’s calmness under pressure helped her win Wimbledon last year 
• Rybakina hadn’t been expected to make a major impact at the tournament  
• The 24-year-old seems unfazed by the level of fame that was thrust upon her  

Viewers of the latest Netflix tennis series, Break Point, followed the journey of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur to last year’s Wimbledon final, with a backstage look at the emotional aftermath of defeat.

Easier to miss but equally remarkable was the reaction of the victor, Elena Rybakina. In an age of elaborate celebrations across most sports, the young Kazakh displayed the same sangfroid in the moment of victory as she had through the three-set battle.

After Jabeur’s last backhand sails long, the winner puffs out her cheeks, walks calmly to the net and then gives the crowd a wave before going back to her seat. After a few minutes she asks permission to make a cursory visit to her box prior to the presentation. But it was all so cool, as if she had just won her local club championship.

Rybakina, 24, is calm but not cold, as it turns out when Mail Sport visits her in Paris one afternoon prior to the French Open. With a friendly, laid-back air, she seems unfazed by the level of fame thrust upon her last year after she burst through the field to win Wimbledon as world No 23.

She returns as defending champion, though preparations have been disrupted. She suffered a viral illness at Roland Garros and, feeling a few lingering effects, pulled out of Eastbourne as a precaution on Monday to make sure she will be ready for SW19.

Elena Rybakina, who remains calm under pressure, is looking to defend her Wimbledon title

Rybakina joins Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek as part of what seems like a new Big Three

Ahead of last year’s tournament there was nothing to suggest Rybakina would triumph

She has been part of a certain order that has been imposed these days in women’s tennis, which makes it no longer quite so perilous to predict. Rybakina, strikingly tall and elegant, has joined Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek as part of what seems like a nascent Big Three.

Born and raised in Moscow, as a teenager Rybakina switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2018 to take advantage of facilities on offer there. She is a fully-fledged citizen, but lives a peripatetic life that sees her continually on the road. Her main training base tends to be in Bratislava, but she could be anywhere.

This has its drawbacks as, like Emma Raducanu, Rybakina has a love for speed. ‘I like cars but I don’t have my driver’s licence yet, I just haven’t had time yet because I am always on the road,’ she says.

‘I really like rollercoasters as well, and I have ridden quite a lot of them in America. After a tournament it’s sort of a treat. One of the things I want to do is jump out of an aeroplane, but my coaches are telling me this is not the right time. I think they are worried about the landing.’

The sport of choice for Rybakina’s father was, slightly surprisingly, rugby, but the pursuit to which she was originally introduced was gymnastics. The problem, which soon became apparent, was her stature.

The 24-year-old says she always liked the traditions of Wimbledon when watching it at home

Rybakina is suited to grass; she has hit nearly 300 aces this season, more than anyone else

‘I have a sister who is three years older than me (Anna, they now travel together) and my parents always wanted to keep us busy, so they took us to gymnastics school and also ice skating. My dad asked the coaches to look at us for the professional group.

‘For gymnastics I was too tall already and it was the same with ice skating. After a few months of trying, the coaches said she is good but there’s no point because she is tall, even though I was only five.

‘My dad liked tennis, and had played a bit when he was in his early 20s. He thought it would be fun but when we went my sister said straight away that she didn’t like it. I liked it from the start, even though it was tough going there without my sister. I played a lot but I probably didn’t think I was going to go professional until 17.’

Rybakina arrived at Wimbledon last year very much as one of the pack, and there had certainly been nothing to suggest that, come the second Saturday of the Championships, she would be holding the trophy aloft. Indeed, the week before she had lost her opening match in Eastbourne to world No 114 Lesia Tsurenko.

‘I had ups and downs during last season and before Wimbledon my tournaments weren’t successful, I was struggling with injury,’ she recalls. ‘I had been on the road a long time and so I had not many expectations going there.

She admits that she was expecting to be on holiday in the second week of Wimbledon last year

Rybakina describes the prospect of returning to Wimbledon as ‘both scary and fun’

‘I was actually thinking I would be on holiday in the second week because the grass hadn’t gone well. I thought, “Let’s just see how it goes”. I didn’t have any pressure and every match I improved.’

She was soon feeling very much at home, and did not drop a set until her quarter-final against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. Perhaps it should have been less of a surprise. Rybakina’s game is tailor-made for grass and with a serve that combines power with accuracy, she has hit nearly 300 aces this season, far more than any other player.

‘I was watching Wimbledon on TV as a child, I always liked the traditions of strawberry and champagne, but I never thought I would even compete there, let alone win it. Of course it’s a beautiful place when you get there and that gives you a lift.

‘When I think of coming back it is both scary and fun. I’m going to play on Centre Court at the start, but it will be good memories, actually it feels like yesterday. We will stay in a bigger house this time because my team is bigger this year.’

There is an almost disarming serenity about the defending champion, who has not followed some female players of recent years by following up a first Grand Slam title with a severe slump in form. This season Rybakina was narrowly beaten in the final of the Australian Open, by Sabalenka and claimed two of the biggest tournaments — Indian Wells and the Italian Open.

Propelled by a sparkling clean ball strike, she would have been much closer to Swiatek in the rankings if points had been given last year by Wimbledon.

If she repeats her title, will there be any histrionic celebrations? ‘I just try to stay calm, maybe I’m even too level sometimes.’

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